Ole Scheeren to transform a Frankfurt residential block in first European project

Riverpark Tower, the latest residential project to be launched by Büro Ole Scheeren, represents some major landmarks for the studio. Scheduled to begin construction in 2018 in Frankfurt, it is the studio’s first major building project in Europe, as well as the firm’s first major reuse project. The reimagining of a 100m-tall seventies office block is set to breathe new life into the high-rise format in Europe.
‘It’s an interesting move for our first European project, coming from the Asian context. We have been working there for over a decade – everything is ground up and tabula rasa,’ says Ole Scheeren. The architect is known for projects such as The Interlace in Singapore and the CCTV building in Beijing, first revealing his intentions to reorientate himself to the West in 2012 (W*163).
The European framework certainly changed things. ‘Tower blocks have a more controversial history in Europe than in Asia. There have been many difficult iterations of the tower post-war in the 1960s and 70s and these buildings were opposite to what we have designed. They were closed, they didn’t explore ideas of community or togetherness and they burdened the European sentiment of living in a tower,’ explains Scheeren.
‘From working in a more positive context in Asia – one of the more obvious benefits of living in a tower is the incredible view. Here we are celebrating the quality of the tower and what it is,’ says Scheeren, who saw the existing concrete building as heavy, enclosed and outdated. ‘It’s a good example of an office building that was a statement at its time, but is no longer appropriate for today’s needs. We wanted to architecturally reinterpret it as an open and active member of the skyline.’
The building is located on the river, seven minutes walk from Frankfurt’s main station
And that he has done. The design has completely transformed the monolithic concrete block into a light, open structure with 220 units and 23 floors. The building had to step up to its new residential role: ‘It is important that it is clearly a residential building, that talks about people living in it. It is see-through in its three-dimensionality and its inhabitation, sending a positive message to the city. It’s no longer an enclosed abstract totem that swallows people up into its silhouette.’
Located along the river, a central public space for the city, the tower also plays the role as a public figure: ‘The tower is very visible, it welcomes you to the Frankfurt skyline as you arrive from the airport as one of the first landmarks,’ says Scheeren. While the existing skeleton of the old building could have been a thorn in the side of Scheeren’s creative bureau, the team saw it as a positive parameter. ‘Our aim was precisely not to look at the existing structure as a limitation, but an opportunity to do things that you wouldn’t do from the ground up, because you couldn’t afford them, or they were deemed not necessary,’ he says.
Dissecting the building, Scheeren stripped back the bulky façade which held a ‘curious system of external galleries that are partly escape corridors, the depth of which would never work for a residential building’ – and opened up four thick corner mega-columns which were blockers to light and views. The uppermost and lowermost technical floors were taken out and floor heights were adjusted to suit residential living and a new ‘crown’ added, where Scheeren adds his stamp.
The new system allowed depth to be reused in different ways, firstly with the insertion of ‘panorama plates’, free-spanning floors that open up ‘horizontal mega-windows’ with no obstructing columns or walls – ‘a system you would never be able to afford in a residential building,’ says Scheeren, and in place of the heavy facade, balconies and windows now emphasis the horizontality of the tower. Thus the interior structure and outward personality of the building are completely transformed, all while retaining the central structure and footprint of the original building. ‘We turned a heavy concrete block into a floating light structure,’ Scheeren sums it up.
The residential block will have 220 units from business apartments to four-room suites and loft floors at the top level.
INFORMATION
For more information, visit the Büro Ole Scheeren website
Wallpaper* Newsletter
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox
Harriet Thorpe is a writer, journalist and editor covering architecture, design and culture, with particular interest in sustainability, 20th-century architecture and community. After studying History of Art at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) and Journalism at City University in London, she developed her interest in architecture working at Wallpaper* magazine and today contributes to Wallpaper*, The World of Interiors and Icon magazine, amongst other titles. She is author of The Sustainable City (2022, Hoxton Mini Press), a book about sustainable architecture in London, and the Modern Cambridge Map (2023, Blue Crow Media), a map of 20th-century architecture in Cambridge, the city where she grew up.
-
2023 Doolan Best Building award goes to Cuddymoss by Ann Nisbet Studio
The 2023 Doolan Best Building award is given to Cuddymoss, a ruin in north Ayrshire transformed into Scotland's finest building of the year
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
Yonder Escalante reinvents glamping in the Utah Desert
Yonder Escalante is the ultimate eight-hectare hospitality experience, leaving no stone (or cactus) unturned
By Adrian Madlener Published
-
Extreme Cashmere’s Los Angeles takeover is a lesson in how to host in style
Amsterdam-based label Extreme Cashmere invites Wallpaper* behind the scenes of its Los Angeles pop-up, featuring an ephemeral restaurant inspired by the team’s beloved dinner parties
By Jack Moss Published
-
Bike-tyre maker Schwalbe’s HQ embraces sustainability through design
The new Schwalbe office building in Germany, featuring interiors designed by Archiproba Studios, champions contemporary sustainable architecture
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
This Berlin house balances romance and strength in a scenic plot
A Berlin house transformed by O'Sullivan Skoufoglou is both romantic and protective
By Harriet Thorpe Published
-
Ole Scheeren’s architecture rewrites the rulebook
Ole Scheeren’s architecture spans from the cinematic to the sustainable and the geometrically astounding. Deyan Sudjic, director emeritus of the London Design Museum, explores an architectural rule-breaker
By Deyan Sudjic Published
-
KHBT Studio crafts German suburban home overlooking a nature reserve
House ZdM9 is a new German suburban home for a family, set on a spectacular site close to Frankfurt and the River Main
By Jonathan Bell Published
-
A ‘contemporary palazzo’ by David Chipperfield and Studio Mark Randel rises in Munich
‘Contemporary palazzo’ housing project in Munich is designed by David Chipperfield and Studio Mark Randel
By Ellen Himelfarb Published
-
Last days of Berlin’s Tegel Airport celebrated in new photo book
Photographer Andreas Gehrke celebrates Tegel Airport and creates an intimate portrait of the place where the passengers have departed forever
By Jonathan Bell Published
-
The Standard Bangkok and The Standard Hua Hin bring pioneering hospitality to Thailand
The Standard Bangkok, in Ole Scheeren’s Mahanakhon tower, and The Standard Hua Hin, designed by Onion, bring the global hospitality brand to Thailand
By Shawn Adams Published
-
‘Ole Scheeren: Spaces of Life’ celebrates ‘form follows fiction’ in architecture
‘Ole Scheeren: Spaces of Life’, a comprehensive look into the work of the German architect, opens at ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe
By Ellie Stathaki Published